


Buried Treasure

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Firefly
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-22
Updated: 2010-07-22
Packaged: 2017-10-10 18:13:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eleven planned on showing Amy the special collection at the Tam Museum. He got the date wrong, however, so he gets to meet River Tam (again) for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Buried Treasure

River returned to Osiris when Miranda was a distant memory and she had learned to control the full extent of her abilities. People didn't recognize her as anything more than a top level researcher at the Academy, and no one knew how she had managed to restructure the entire facility and separate it from both Blue Sun and Alliance interests. There had been help along the way, of course, but too many good people had died to make it happen.

River closed out her data streams and rubbed at her eyes. When she was tired, her guard was down. She could hear all of the stars and all of the worlds around her, a steady ticking in the back of her mind. People were a hum, almost like white noise. If she was _really_ tired, it was a cacophony of sound that threatened to take over her entire mind and keep her from being lucid. She knew what people had thought of her when she was younger, before she had learned control. She knew what people could do when afraid of the unknown, and she was used to living her life as one large question mark.

She had to be tired. The static and ticking and white noise almost sounded like a _vworp vworp_ sound, a kind of sound that tugged at the back of her mind. She was in her parents' home, though they had long since died and left her and Simon the property. Simon didn't want it; he and Kaylee and all of their children were happy on Beaumonde, so that left River in charge of the Tam estate. She had more of an interest in the art and curios her mother had collected, anyway. She could value lost things, and most of the things her mother had collected were odd in some way.

River stopped short when she saw a redhead in front of her. The girl had an impossibly bright smile when she spied River. "Doctor! I think you went the wrong way again!"

"I know exactly when and where I am," came a voice from inside the tall blue box that had not been there five minutes before. The tall, lanky man was dressed in a suit with a bow tie, his hair somewhat mussed. He gave River an affectionate but distracted smile. "You see? Didn't I tell you that we were going to another museum? We're going to see the Tam Collection."

"This is my home," River said somewhat frostily. "This is _not_ a museum."

"Oh dear. Did I forget the when of things again?"

River lofted an eyebrow at him as the redhead laughed. "The when of things?"

"Time machine and all that," the redhead said. "Doctor, we should come back when this is properly a museum."

"I think it should be all right, Amy," the Doctor replied, waving the redhead off in another direction behind him as he contemplated River. He looked as though he recognized her but couldn't place her, and he leaned in slightly to take a closer look. River had gotten that sort of look a lot in the early days after Miranda, when no one could believe that a seventeen year old girl could have battled Reavers and won. "I know Miss Tam very well. But not now, it seems. Later. For her, I mean. I've met her before."

Amy shrugged and went down the directed hallway, peering at the paintings and sculptures on display. Soon enough, she was out of sight.

"You have no right to let some girl wander around in my home," River said with a stern edge. She wasn't sure why hadn't stopped Amy earlier, though she seemed almost as transfixed with the Doctor as he was with her.

"There are stories about you," he said in a musing tone. "That you're made of starlight and dust." He smiled, heartily amused by something. "I know that's not true."

"Who says that?"

"The Blin'eth, when they hear tales of you, and how you beat the dark back. But I think that's after your time."

Time again. River used to hate time, and now she had so much of it.

"You both need to leave," River said. She was sure her words flowed properly, but the Doctor merely smiled, leaning slightly forward as he looked at her. "What?"

"I don't remember you this way. But then, perhaps we got on so well before because we meet now, like this." He smiled at her encouragingly, which River found confusing. "You never told me we met before. I wonder why you'd keep that from me?"

River shook her head. "I've never met you before. I really must ask you to leave--"

She grasped his arm, intending to grab him and march him down the wall after his friend. Only, there was the shock of _other_ and _alien_ and _old_ under her hand, sheer impossibility of knowledge creeping beneath her skin. As much as she had conditioned herself for years to keep her mental shields up and her Reader capabilities down, everything seemed to flood her at once. River felt as if she was gasping for air, losing grip on reality all over again, and she was a young girl falling out of a box and screaming as the light hit her eyes. He cradled her, this gangling Doctor that looked so impossibly young when he was so impossibly old. He knew things, all sorts of things that hadn't happened yet or would never happen or could never happen. He saw all of time, all at once, just the way she used to, just the way she still could if she only let herself feel it.

"Oh, River," he murmured, cradling her head against his chest. He pressed his lips against her temple, and it was a starburst of knowledge beneath her skin, flowering inside of her mind. "This is why you didn't tell me, isn't it? You were so afraid of what you could do if only you let go of it."

She turned her head, intending to ask him what he meant by that remark. Their mouths met, and she would later swear it had been an accident.

Accident or not, there was a spark in that kiss, something River had thought she would never, ever feel. She had closed herself off, had shut down all kinds of feelings, and it was as if she had come alive again all at once. River opened her mouth beneath his, trying to grasp hold of that sensation. She was drowning in it, overwhelmed by the various possibilities, suddenly able to see the infinite realms within the universe all over again.

This time, she wasn't afraid of it.

She turned and started to push him toward the wall, running her hands beneath the sport coat he was wearing. The Doctor was surprised, but managed not to show it overmuch. "Are you the one afraid?" she asked with large eyes. She laughed at his affronted look, and it was swallowed up in the kiss he gave her. He touched his tongue to the seam of her mouth, then touched her tongue when she parted her lips. "What about your friend?" she gasped, pulling his shirt out from the waistband of his pants.

"Oh, Amy? She'll be all right, I think. Y'know, paintings and all that. She's one for art, she is. I don't think she'll miss me at all." The Doctor grinned when he caught sight of his TARDIS right next to them. "But you know... I do have a time machine. She doesn't have to miss us at all."

River brightened and pushed the Doctor toward that blue box. "Well, then. Show me how this works. I promise to be thoroughly surprised no matter what you tell me." River asked with a grin. It was a twinkle of her former self, but it felt comfortable. It was sliding back into herself, becoming a more stable version of the girl she used to be.

They tumbled into the TARDIS, mouths hooked together and tongues dancing. River was still very flexible, still moved like a dancer. The Doctor definitely appreciated that. The TARDIS was a warm, comfortable hum in the back of River's mind, drowning out the buzzing that the people of Osiris had become. "She likes you," the Doctor murmured as he moved to kiss her neck. "She's always liked you."

"Mmmm. I like how she sounds," River murmured, easing his coat from his shoulders. Their clothes were shed quickly, tumbling to the floor with a minimum of fuss. River couldn't remember how they got into a bedroom, but perhaps the TARDIS assisted with that. The bed was soft and comfortable, with plenty of throw pillows around. River was wet and slippery when the Doctor slid inside of her, panting at the feel of him. It had been far too long since she'd been with anyone, and the touch of his skin against hers was delightfully electric. He moved with languid strokes, ignoring her urging him to move faster. "I need..."

"Time," he whispered against the column of her throat. "We've all the time in the universe, River."

The sound of his voice alone was enough to make her come the first time.

River lost count of how many times he brought her to climax, how many times he kissed her and said her mind was as beautiful as all the galaxies he had ever seen. She valued that far more than her physical appearance at this point, though his enjoyment of that was obvious. "You are perfect, River," he murmured as he knelt between her legs, worshiping her with lips and tongue and fingers, "You've grown into yourself, into who you were meant to become."

There was no way to tell how long they were actually together. The clock on the wall of the estate read the same time when they stepped out of the TARDIS. River clasped his hand in hers tightly. She could still hear the TARDIS's steady hum, could still hear the buzzing of every living soul on Osiris. It felt comfortable now, as if she could pick out any single voice and listen any time she wanted to, without drowning in it, without succumbing to her fears of losing control.

The Doctor touched her lips with a finger. "You know, you can't tell me that we've met, the next time you meet me. But I'll be wearing a different face, so it might not be all that difficult not to remember."

"I'll know you," River promised. "I can see inside of you, and I'll know you, no matter whose face you wear."

The Doctor kissed her fondly on the forehead as Amy ran back down the hall. "Doctor! You have to see this! That statue in there is _amazing!"_

He laughed and left River's company for Amy's. "I told you this place was special," he said with a wry grin at River. "You never know just what treasure you'll find."


End file.
